General Question

"Are there any credit cards that pay interest like a savings account?

Basically I’m wondering if there’s such a thing as a card you can sign up for, like a credit card, but instead of charging things to it, you can easily deposit to it, by charging yourself? Am I insane?

9 Answers

There are savings cards that you can deposit money and checks into, but you have to have the money to start with, or you would have nothing to deposit. You can’t deposit future earnings.

There are cards that give you back a small amount of money for every purchase you make, and if you pay them off at the end of the month, you end up with some extra money. With those, the more you spend, the more you make, but it only works if you pay off the purchases in full with every bill.

I don’t think so, but you can use it to build a good credit history if you are careful to pay it off on time. A number of things go into calculating your credit score. One is how long you have a card continuously. This is the mean of the length of time you’ve had all your cards, so if you have one card for six years and open a new one, your score will be calculated from an average of three years. Then how often you pay and whether it is on time, and the maximum amount of credit you have vs. how much is available. Another thing is applying for new cards. When people look up your credit score, it is either a “hard pull” or a “soft pull.” A hard pull is something like applying for a new card or a loan. Getting approved for more credit is contingent upon this lookup, and when they do this it has a small negative impact on your score if you are rejected. If you do multiple hard pulls in a short period of time, like a few weeks, you will not lose points, because there are valid reasons for doing this, like shopping around for a new card. A soft pull doesn’t have any effect on your score. It is something like a prospective employer looking up your score.

You can get a debit card with an interest- bearing account. I have PNC virtual wallet, and they have a free checking account with no interest, a short-term savings with low interest, and a long-term saving account with higher interest linked on the same card. It’s pretty easy to move money around between the three. I think there is also an option to link a line of credit. There are lots of other banks that will let you do something similar, and almost any bank will let you link a line of credit with a checking account for overdraft protection.

@Haleth That’s what we do. It is possible to earn interest money on the same money twice, by making a deposit in an interest account by taking money from a second account. The second account won’t record the deduction for up to two days.

Liek otehrs have said above you can get a debit card that is interest bearing. You can also look at using a credit card as delaying payment for 3 to 4 weeks, so you are earning interest on your money in your savings account before you pay the bill in FULL. If you don’t pay the bill in full you are paying tons of interest, which I think is ridiculous. In this way credit cards are much more profitable for you then debit cards, because with a credit card you hold onto your money longer. This is best observed when savings accounts are making high interest, which unofrtunately is not the case right now. There are also credit cards that give you money back. I think fidelity has one, and the “money back” goes into your fidelity account. Probably other banks offer something like that.